Palace of Dim Night
by Jimaine
Summary: The gang is back in an attempt to recall the wayward Solos! With Tahiri regressing into the past, Anakin and a cadre of dead Jedi hatch a plan to bring the famous family back together. Includes Jedi from every era!
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars, or the book that caused this fic wouldn't exist!

A/N: I hope you're all suitably happy I'm writing this. **ducks thrown fruit** Okay, okay. I'm writing this because I hate what's happening in NJO, and have to change it. This is after Star By Star, because that's the last NJO book I could stand to read. So, since I have no idea what's happened since then, don't yell at me for being incorrect! For example, I've heard that Tenel Ka went completely OOC and not _only_ accepted a position as Hapen Queen, but got a prostetic arm! No, I'm sorry, no. So this is the gang as we know and love them, as well as Anakin and Tahiri! Read on!

Dedication: To Tahiri Solo, who was the motivational force for me to write this fic. She has at least two of her own that bring Anakin back in different ways. I'm a comic book fan, so I found this way easiest.

Prologue

_*I need to borrow your body_.*

Those we perhaps the last words Uldir expected to hear from his dead friends nonexistent mouth.

"You _what?! _ Why? _ How_?" he squeaked. He had been startled enough by the sudden appearance of a dead person; now the apparition was asking him for his body!

The speck of blue light sighed in Uldir's mind. _*Well_ . . .*

"Not even you have a chance of getting my cooperation if you won't tell me why I should give it," Uldir told the phantom voice.

_*Alright, alright. To put it simply, I'm trying to come back from the dead.*_

"You're . . . Repeat that," Uldir said, trying to keep his voice as calm as possible.

_*I'm trying to resurrected myself. All I need is my body, and a channel void of Force-talent to work through. You have to be willing, Uldir. I won't – and in truth can't – force you_.*

Uldir shook his head. "Your body's been burned. If that's one of your requirements, it's not even remotely possible."

The blue light dimmed. _*Are you sure?_*

"Your body's gone. There's nothing left for you to come back to, even if you could pull this off."

_*Uldir . . . thanks. If I can find my way around a few things, I'll be back. That is, if you're willing to help me_.*

"What exactly would this involve?" the chestnut haired human asked.

_*Presuming I can get around the whole 'my body has been burned' thing, I need you to act as a channel for my spirit back into my body. For this to work right, I have to spend a day in your head_.*

"That's the weirdest thing I've ever heard, even out of the mouth – figuratively speaking – of a dead Jedi. What's this body-sharing entail?"

_*So you'll help me?_*

"Maybe."

_*Mostly my being able to feel everything you do, in the physical sense. After all, I haven't had a body for a few months. You ought to retain the controls, but I'll still be able to speak to you mentally and I'll still have the Force._*

Uldir started pacing in the cramped cockpit of the _Tale End_. The blue light waited patiently. "Fine. I'll help you. But only because I'm on my way back from a supply run to the _Errant Venture_. I've seen Tahiri."

_*She's one of the reasons I have to come back. She has a part to play. And – I love her_.*


	2. I Wasn't Supposed to Die?

Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars, K? Or Tahl wouldn't have died, and neither would another dozen or so people. And Borsk would have his head on a stick. Forget honorable death, he doesn't deserve it!

A/N: many thanks to those who reviewed! I'm happy! Here's the first chapter!

Dedication: hmm. I think this one goes to Silverangel, who has been begging me to write this forever. She's also decided to join me in boycotting NJO, which is a bit problematic since now I won't know what's going on at all, but I really don't care any more.

Chapter I: "I wasn't supposed to die?!"

Blue mist swirled lazily around everything as the young Jedi found himself – and only his self – translocated away from the Yuuzhan Vong worldship. Sitting in front of him were a pair of alien humanoids, both in Jedi robes, bent over a board game. The one facing him murmured "We have company, Quilanquaacan'tora."

The closer humanoid, a female Twi'lek with lavender skin, whirled around. "Shazi preserve us!" she cried, her leks jerking out of their place coiled around her neck. "Tell me you're not Anakin. Tell me you're his long-lost twin brother who died heroically and ended up here!" the Twi'lek, Quilanquaa, seemed both shocked and worried to the confused young Jedi.

"I'm . . . Anakin Solo. I'm dead. Aren't I . . . supposed to be here?" he asked the ancient Jedi Master.

"**No**! _Qui-gon!_" she screeched.

"Your move," the alien opposite the distraught Twi'lek gestured with a pawlike hand. "Don't mind Quilan, boy. She becomes over-excited very easily. Of course, this is to my advantage. Playing _rek-sha_ requires the peace of mind and patience of a hunter."

Quilan growled, showing sharpened fangs, and turned back to the board. After scouting over the changed positions for a moment, she moved a pawn.

Another Jedi – a human this time – shimmered into existence next to Quilan. "What is it this time, Quil – Oh, no."

The Jedi Master rolled blood-red eyes, which clashed with her lavender skin. "It's Anakin. They killed him. This wasn't part of the plan, Qui-gon! Tahl never foresaw _this!_"

The catlike alien sighed as her playing partner began to work herself into a frenzy again. Before she was even halfway there, Qui-gon put up a hand to forestall her. "Tahl! Dearest, a moment of your time."

A woman shimmered in next to Qui-gon, green eyes flecked with gold even in this world built around blue. "Qui-gon?"

"We have a small problem. It seems Anakin insisted on dying before his scheduled time."

Tahl looked surprised, then slightly miffed. "One future, one single future of the dozens shown me and it comes true. You know, you live in every other possible timeline, Anakin. Death has granted me foresight beyond what any Jedi achieves in life."

"I believe you made a mistake in your life, human, if what Tahl says is true," the alien opposite Quilan finally looked up from the _rek-sha_ board, ginger fur slicked neatly back and pointed ears forward. "Such occurrences are rare and far between. How did you manage to die before she said it was time?"

Anakin sat hastily down, the blue mist solidifying under him into a chair. "You mean – I'm not supposed to be here?"

"If you stay dead the Yuuzhan Vong are going to overrun the galaxy, many species will die, and the Force that holds our entire galaxy together will dissolve away! And _that_ will kill the Vong, too!" Quilan snapped.

The Cathar – Anakin had finally figured out what she was – reached out and put a steadying hand on Quilan's shoulder. "You're overreacting, Twi."

"I am _not_, Sylvar! That is precisely what Tahl has predicted, and her prophecies are the most accurate of any Jedi in history – till now!" the lavender-skinned Twi'lek woman retorted. "She's been practically dictating everything that's happened since the day she died, before Palpatine was even a Senator!"

"Quilan, you're scaring the newly-dead," Sylvar remarked sarcastically. "Besides, I myself fought beside Nomi Sunrider – Where is Nomi, anyway? She should be here – and you come from even before me! Qui-gon was Obi-wan's Master and Tahl, as you said, died before Palpatine became a Senator. Now, Qui-gon, who else needs consulting?"

The deceased Jedi – one among the many here – considered. "Nomi, Obi-wan of course, Ki-Adi Mundi, Andur, Thon, Jorus, and Ikrit. Oh, and Sylvar – contact Lyric and Lusa, while you're at it."

Qui-gon grinned at the stunned expression on Anakin's face. He had the feeling this was going to be quite a reunion for the boy.


	3. Regression

Disclaimer: I really, truly, utterly do not own Star Wars. George Lucas does and I, personally, can't believe he'd treat his own property so badly that I had to write this fic!

A/N: For those of you waiting to characters like Tenel Ka, Sannah and Zekk to show up: it won't be long now! I promise!

Chapter II: Regression

"Tionne?"

The pearly-haired humanoid whirled at the young feminine voice behind her. It sounded familiar, but she couldn't quite place who it belong to. "Yes – Tahiri! I almost didn't recognize you!"

"Tionne! Haven't I been here long enough yet for you to know my voice?" Tahiri laughed, but Tionne was studying her. The musician caught every nuance and change in all vocalizations, and something about Tahiri wasn't right. Her voice was slightly out of synch with her normal pattern. And the faint accent that betrayed her homeworld, which had vanished over the years was back. She was also dressed in her old Academy uniform, a bright orange jumpsuit, which she had stopped wearing three years ago after moving up out of that level. "I was just looking for you to ask you when Anakin was coming back from his trip to see his parents on Coruscant."

Tionne froze. _Coming back from . . . in addition to the fact that Anakin's _dead_, Coruscant has been taken over by the Yuuzhan Vong!_ "Um, there isn't really a – a set time."

Tahiri's face fell. "Oh, well. Oh, and I was looking for Master Ikrit all over the Great Temple this morning – did he go into the jungle to meditate? I know he does that sometimes, and then I went looking for Anakin to see if he could find Ikrit, but then I remembered Anakin was gone, so I went looking for you."

The musician thought carefully about her answer. "I – I believe Master Ikrit is on a mission, searching for several artifacts Master Skywalker wanted him to find."

"And he left without saying goodbye? That's not like him," Tahiri cocked her head. "I mean, Ikrit's usually so responsible and always makes sure Anakin's okay before he leaves – oh, that's it. Anakin isn't here, so Ikrit must have left right away when Master Skywalker asked him to. That's what I would do, anyway, if Master Skywalker asked me. Did Ikrit take the _Sunrider_ or the _Lore Seeker_? Or that one ship Jaina was thinking of altering so it fit him?"

"He – he took the _Sunrider_, I believe."

"Thanks, Tionne!" Tahiri called over her shoulder as she raced away, blond hair flying.

*

"KAM!!"

The other Jedi whirled around as his wife threw the door to their quarters open and shut it quickly behind her. "Tionne, what happened? Is something wrong?"

"Tahiri. She's completely forgotten Anakin's death, Ikrit's death, and the loss of Yavin 4. I think she's blocked out everything concerning the Yuuzhan Vong – she thought Anakin was on a visit with his parents on Coruscant, and she was wearing that bright orange jumpsuit some of the younger classes wear. She hardly fit into it, but that didn't seem to stop her."

Kam stared at the other Jedi in astonishment. "I knew . . . I mean, I knew we were going to have trouble with Tahiri, but I never expected this! How far back has she regressed?"

"At least three years, if not more. We're going to have to warn the other students to watch out for her. Do we want to try to snap her out of this or – ?"

"I think we may have to play along to keep her mind intact."

Tionne sighed. "I was thinking much the same thing myself. If Anakin's death has thrown her off this badly what would happen if we told her, all over again, that he was dead?"

Kam linked his fingers with Tionne's. "We'll just go slowly. Don't aim for a quick snap out – just try to update her slowly, year by year. And if she thinks it's different years, she won't question why Anakin's been gone so long. We'll eventually reach the Yuuzhan Vong, and then . . ."

"Then Anakin rescues her when everyone else gave up on her, and she sticks to him like a burr again, and then we have to tell her he's dead. Have her live through that hell again," Tionne finished. "She's so young, Kam. Anakin was her oldest friend, her only anchor in this maelstrom, and they were in love," when her husband shot her a surprised look, Tionne just laughed. "Kam, do you really think I could have missed something that obvious in two of my oldest students? I've known Tahiri as long as she's been at the Academy. They would have been _fine_, Kam – but now he's dead and Tahiri might as well be."


	4. Aunt Mara

Disclaimer: I OWN STAR WARS!!! **gets dragged away by people in dark gray suits, subjected to a courtroom, and fined a sum equal to the amount of money Lucasfilm has lost since NJO started. Needless to say poor Jimi and her entire family have been sued out of house and home** -In short, I don't own SW

Hmm. Yukon, ho?

Chapter III: Aunt Mara

"Are you sure about this?"

_*Look, Uldir, not very many people are going to believe you've been contacted by the soul of a dead Jedi. Aunt Mara won't either – not unless you can sit her down long enough to explain. Oh, and she's a little overprotective of Ben, so if she has him while you're with her, don't touch.*_

"Great," Uldir muttered. "You have really interesting relatives, you know that?"

_*It's really not my fault. Aunt Mara might not be so 'interesting' if Uncle Luke hadn't taken ten years to propose to her_.*

Uldir was about to respond to that statement when he saw his fire-haired quarry round a corner in front of him. "Mara – um, Ms Jade Skywalker? Master Skywalker? What am I supposed to call you, anyway?"

Mara whirled around, a snarl on her lips. Even when she recognized Uldir from one of the many holopics she and Luke had gathered out of Anakin's room on the _Errant Venture_ she had trouble restraining the snarl. "What do you want?"

"Um – this will take some explaining. I'm Uldir, one of Anakin's friends. Uh – You know how he's dead? Well, he's not supposed to be."

Mara gave the younger man an astounded look. "What are you, some kind of nut?! How **dare** you walk in here and tell me something like that! There is no way for you to even guess at what's 'supposed' to be – you don't have the Force!"

She was about to turn away when Uldir whispered "That's the point. If I had the Force, I'd burn him out. Ms. Skywalker, Anakin's trying to come back. He came to me first because he needs a Forceless channel to work though. But I can't do it by myself."

The Jedi stuttered a moment. "How can you even guess that?"

"Ms. Skywalker, if there's even a chance I'm right – and you'd know if I thought I was telling the truth – wouldn't it be worth it? I saw Tahiri and I have to get her out of that. He's even worse than I am on _that_ subject!"

"What do you . . ?"

"I can talk to him. Sort of. He's kinda currently residing in my head. He – and a dozen or so dead Jedi – have a list of people whose help we'll need."

Mara ran all this through in her head. "Alright. Suppose I decide to take you seriously – what do you need from me?"

"A ship, and where to find Lowbacca, Zekk, and Tenel Ka. We'll be picking up Sannah on the _Errant Venture_, and Jacen and Jaina on our way."

Mara's jaw dropped. "Jacen's _dead_, and Jaina's turned to the Dark Side!"

"Jacen's _not_ dead, and bringing him and Anakin back will solve Jaina's problem rather nicely."

"Why did you come to me with this instead of Luke?"

"Because Anakin wanted me to."

Still suffering from the shock of discovering that her nephew was trying to come back to life with the help of dead Jedi, Mara beckoned to Uldir.


	5. The Rock Dragon

Disclaimer: I swear on a stack of UXM comics, I DO NOT own X-Men

Uhm . . .

Oops. Wrong fic . . . Lesse . . . Ah! I don't own Star Wars! (bad luck, that)

Chapter IV: The _Rock Dragon_

"Uldir – you're out of your mind, you do know that, right?" Zekk asked the other man.

"Rather, I'm sharing my mind. Anakin's been being annoying. Tenel Ka, are you sure you want to bring the _Rock Dragon_? We're not going the best of places."

The Dathomirian woman shot Uldir a look that could kill. Her orange-red hair was pulled back by a red headband, and she was also wearing a red armband. In mourning, red stood for blood. "The _Rock Dragon_ can take care of herself. If you are not lying to us, any risk is more than worth it to have Jacen – and Jaina and Anakin – back."

"Um – " a perky young brunette Jedi trainee looked up from between Tenel Ka and Lowie. "Why isn't Tahiri coming?"

Uldir bit his lip and heard Anakin curse. "Tahiri thinks she's eleven, Sannah. Besides, would she go anywhere without Anakin?"

Wryly, the Melodie shook her head. "No."

Tenel Ka and Uldir flipped switches as they powered up the _Rock Dragon_, her in the piolets chair and he in to co-piolets. He knew very well, however, that someone else would be sitting in his seat in a few days.

*

The trip was a long one, even at hyperspeed, and Uldir was afraid he'd put in the wrong coordinates. The four anxious Jedi were no help; he eventually retreated entirely to the cockpit and let them sort out things for themselves. Even Anakin wasn't any help, as he'd left Uldir to contact the Jedi Masters who were trying to arrange things in their favor.

"How much longer until we get wherever you're taking us?"

The human sighed, and turned his chair to face the young Melody. "Well, according to the coordinates, probably another twenty standard hours or so. I'm not even certain _where_ we're coming out – if Anakin were here I could ask him but he's left for the moment, which leaves me clueless."

"Thanks anyway," Sannah shrugged. Lowie had promised to teach her the next stage in her lightsaber training. _Now, if only I can find him_ . . .

She poked her head into the large, circular center of the _Rock Dragon_, which was fondly termed the 'lounge', because that's exactly what they did there: lounge. Several couches and big chairs lines the walls, and a thick, soft rug with the symbol of the Royal House of Hapes woven in the center, and bordered with a repeating pattern of the charge of Tenel Ka's family on Dathomir. She spotted Zekk sunk up to his elbows in one of the couches. "Zekk, have you seen Lowie? He promised – "

The man chuckled as he looked up from the cavernous couch. "I think he's hiding from you. Em Teedee's never been the best at explaining Force matters from Wookiee to Basic, and he's only just realized you don't know Wookiee."

Sannah shrugged. "I don't see why that should matter. If he understands Basic, we ought to be alright. I _am_ already bilingual, you know."

Zekk sighed. "Yeah, I remember. It's so hard to tell you're not human."

"In about three years it will be really, really obvious. I grow a tail, fins and gills." she allowed herself a slightly smirk at the expression on Zekks face.

"You metamorphose? I didn't know there were any humanoids who did that!"

"Two do, Melodies and Codru-Ji. Melodies have three stages: egg, child, and elder. Elders inhabit the pools that riddle the mountains of Yavin 8. I – I kind of hope that I can survive somewhere else, though," Sannah sank into one of the huge chairs, letting the pillowesque cushions swallow her small form.

"Hmm?" Zekk's head reappeared from where it had been buried in the couch. "Why?"

She sighed. "Yavin 4 was taken by the Vong – how long do you think it'll be before they realize another moon bears life? My people are being quiet, hoping to stay hidden, but it's only a matter of time. And I'd hate to see what they could come up with if given the predators on my world." Sannah shuddered.

"What _would_ you do if your changing came, and Yavin 8 had been taken by the Vong?" he wondered.

The trainee became slightly glaze-eyed. "I'd probably end up in a tank on the _Errant Venture_, although I likely wouldn't make it through the changing itself. We require a certain type of algae to breath through while we change, and put ourselves in the path of danger to use it, as it only grows in one open pool on the side of the mountains."

The human pushed himself up on his elbows and stared at the younger Jedi. "So you'd _die_ if you couldn't get back to Yavin 8?!"

"Probably. I'm . . . not sure, though. Something else _could_ be substituted, to breath with, but it might affect the change . . . **Why** am I worrying about this?!" she demanded suddenly. "It's years away, and the Vong could be gone by then." She shook her head, determined to snap herself out of the depression she'd almost fallen into. "Besides; we're trying to bring Anakin back, not solve the Vong war."

Zekk sank back into the cushions. "Have you talked to Master Skywalker?"

"No. Like I said, it's a few years away. Anyway," Sannah did an abrupt subject change, from her to him. "I know you, Lowie and Tenel Ka are here mostly for Jacen and Jaina, but why? How'd you meet the Solo twins?"

He laughed. "That's a looong story."

"We have a heck of a lot of time."


	6. He's in the Space Slug!

Disclaimer: Me no own Star Wars

A/N: Hi! I'm back! Sorry this one took so long, I've been working on a HP fic, and kinda forgot to update **ducks thrown fruit** okay, okay, I deserve that, but - review? Please? You remind me of the need to update!

Chapter V: "He's in the Space Slug?!"

Starlines appeared, shortened, and fell into place as stars as the_ Rock Dragon_ fell out of hyperspace.

And was hurled into an asteroid field.

Tenel Ka reacted with Force-enhanced speed, Uldir a second behind. "Anakin!" he shouted as he and Tenel Ka fought to keep her ship from becoming debris. "What's going _on?!!_"

_*Don't worry; you're in the right place. Set down on the really, really big asteroid to your left._*

"You want me to do **what**!?!" he demanded.

_*Land on the asteroid, Uldir. Jacen's there._*

"He's on the asteroid?! You have _got_ to be kidding me!"

_*Uldir, would I really give you coordinates for the center of an asteroid field if Jacen wasn't in it?! LAND!*_

"What is going on?" Tenel Ka demanded, using the Force to keep her spaceship intact.

"We have to land on an asteroid. The really, really big one, over there," Uldir nodded towards the multi-kilometer chunk of rock. "Somehow, that's where Jacen is."

_*Try to land on the side with the big hole in it, the one made by a space slug. A really big space slug. That's actually where Jacen is; in the space slug._*

"HE'S IN THE SPACE SLUG?!!" Uldir jerked in surprise, moving one of the controls and causing the _Rock Dragon_ to spin out of control. Zekk, Lowie and Sannah kept asteroids at bay while Uldir and Tenel Ka regained control.

"I take it we're heading for the hole the space slug bore in the asteroid?" Tenel Ka inquired when the _Rock Dragon_ was under control again.

Uldir's voice was in shock when he replied. "Apparently."

*

"How can Jacen be down here?" Sannah asked as Tenel Ka and Lowie searched through the breathers for one that would fit her. "We're inside another animal, and if we're using breathers that means the atmosphere can't be enough to survive on."

Uldir cocked his head for a moment, listening to Anakin's response. "The atmosphere is just really thin. Not enough for any kind of long activity, but once Jacen was deep enough that the Vong wouldn't be able to find him, he dropped into a healing trance. It's keyed to wake him every fifty hours, or if someone says his name."

"Convenient."

"Ah hah. A breather for you, Sannah," Tenel Ka held the smaller breather by the elastic cord around the back. "And Uldir – or Anakin – is correct. Jacen _is_ here. I can feel him."

Lowie spoke up in a series of growls, some of which Sannah understood. Tenel Ka's answer proved her mental translation correct.

"Yes, I can lead us to him."

"Um . . . Are you sure you don't want me to stay with Em Teedee on the ship, Tenel Ka?" Uldir asked. The miniature translation droid had refused to fly about the gullet of an animal.

"Yes. The _Rock Dragon_ can take care of herself, as I mentioned before. We're wasting time," the Dathomirian woman answered curtly before heading down the ramp and into the moist atmosphere of the space slug digestion system.

"It's squishy!" Sannah squealed, mincing along just behind Zekk, who rolled his eyes.

"We're inside a space slug, Sannah, of course it's squishy!"

Lowie growled a question from behind Sannah. "Not much farther," Tenel Ka called back. As the train reached a turning point that led into the harsher intestinal section of digestion, Tenel Ka increased her pace and ran to a figure the others could hardly see, lying near one of the fleshy walls. The redhead knelt next to the emancipated Solo as the others caught up.

"Jacen."


	7. A Love that Barrs the Gates of Death

Disclaimer: Lucas owns Star Wars. Not me. Although in my opinion, he should at least take the time to read the books coming out . . .

A/N: HAH! In an apology to taking so long with the last chapter, here's the next one, and it's loooong by the standards this story's setting!

Chapter VI: A Love that Bars the Gates of Death

Mist swirled, and blurry, fuzzy figures solidified as Jacen fought off unconsciousness. His body was on it's last reserves and although the healing trance was keeping him alive he was dangerously thin. The insufficient atmosphere, combined with poor health, was more than enough to make him want to fall right back into his healing trance.

Then the figure leaning over him cleared, and lent him strength to fight it off. He reached up and pulled her down, embracing her with all his strength. She returned the hug wholeheartedly.

"That's the second time you've done that to me, Friend Jacen, and this time was worse than the last! Can you stand?" Tenel Ka asked suddenly, noticing she was holding him up. Jacen feebly shook his head.

"It's the atmosphere – he can hardly breathe," Sannah pointed out, and Tenel Ka slipped her own breather off and put it on Jacen. In less than a minute he had brightened considerably.

"I think if we take turns sharing breathers, we can get back to the _Rock Dragon_ in one piece," Zekk suggested. "Stupid of us not to think to bring another. C'mon, Jacen, up we go!" Zekk and Tenel Ka supported Jacen as they made their way back to the ship, taking longer than they had on the way there due to constantly switching breathers. The only one who couldn't was Sannah, so she ran ahead to see if she could find one to bring back for Jacen.

When the troupe finally made it back to the _Rock Dragon_, Sannah closed the ramp behind them. Tenel Ka and Zekk were beginning to stumble under Jacen's reduced weight, so Lowie hauled him up and brought him to the infirmary with Zekk and Tenel Ka close behind. Uldir and Sannah left the reunited quartet for the cockpit, to see if Anakin had come up with their next destination yet.

Meanwhile, the four friends were enveloped in a huge, somewhat furry pileup. Everyone seemed to want to talk at once, including Em Teedee.

"You gave us quite a scare, Master Jacen – "

"How did you _get_ down here? And away from the Vong?"

Lowie growled his own chastisement, which Em Teedee didn't even bother translating; everyone in the room knew Wookiee.

Jacen and Tenel Ka were silent, so wrapped up (literally!) in having each other back that they hardly realized anyone else was in the room. Jacen buried his head in Tenel Ka's long hair, too exhausted to care how much he was leaning on Tenel Ka. She shook her head once and pulled back, although Jacen was still leaning against her to keep his torso upright. _At least I'm sitting. Standing goes under the category 'not fun'_.

"How did you find me?" he croaked, his voice harsh from not having been used.

For a moment no one answered, then Zekk muttered the answer.

"What?"

"ANAKIN!! We've been following the instructions of your dead brother, alright?! Apparently when Anakin died he scared the seven hells out of the previously-dead Jedi because he wasn't supposed to be dead. So a dozen or so of them got together with Uldir, rounded us up, and we came to get you. If Uldir can get our next destination out of Anakin, we're going to find your sister who, in case you hadn't noticed, has turned to the Dark Side!" Zekk said all this very quickly and ended about an octave higher than Jacen though his voice should be able to go.

Jacen blinked.

"You're taking instructions from Anakin."

Lowie barked an affirmative.

"Indeed. In fact, he led us to you. Without Master Anakin's directions, we believed you dead," Em Teedee informed him.

"Sithspawn," Jacen muttered, falling away from Tenel Ka to lie on the bed. Then something occurred to him. "Where's Tahiri? I'd think she wouldn't miss this for – well, actually, I can't think of anything she'd want more than having Anakin back."

The comment sparked more nervous glance exchanges. Jacen narrowed his eyes. "I didn't think I'd been gone _that_ long! What happened to Tahiri?"

Sannah cleared her throat from the doorway. "She regressed. She's about eleven, at the Academy with Anakin – who is conveniently visiting his family on Coruscant. Tionne sent a message with an update; they're brining her back up through the years so it doesn't seem as if Anakin's been gone for long." Sannah shrugged at the horrified look in Jacen's eyes. "Uldir got the coordinates from Anakin – Jaina's on Carratos."

"Oh, my! That's right on the edge of the territory the Yuuzhan Vong have taken!" Em Teedee squealed.

"C'mon, Uldir wants everyone strapped in before he gets into the asteroid field. Can you handle Jacen, Tenel Ka?"

"I believe that is within my capabilities."

Jacen nearly laughed aloud as the others left the room. Tenel Ka, handle him? No one better. Slowly propping himself up on his elbows, he stared at Tenel Ka through bars of too-long hair. "Anakin?"

"This is a fact."

"And how many people know you're running around a Vong-infested galaxy on the orders of a dead seventeen year old Jedi?"

"Mara Jade."

Jacen blew his overgrown bangs out of his eyes for the ten seconds before they fell back. He didn't have the energy to pull them out of his eyes again, no matter how annoyed he was that the obstructed his view of Tenel Ka. He had a reply ready when the comm unit on the wall crackled to life.

"Tenel Ka, could you call up here when you have Jacen strapped in? We're about ready to go up here, so that leaves our invalid in the back to wait for."

Tenel Ka nodded out of habit, although Jacen was the only one who could see her. "Affirmative, Uldir." the comm unit crackled off. "Come on, my friend. Unless you wish to use the full-body bed restraints you need to be in a chair."

Jacen groaned as he let his legs drop over the side of the bed, stumbling until Tenel Ka reached to support him. He leaned most of his weight on her even for the few steps to the chair, remembering similar situations from the past. Bespin, Ryloth, and what seemed like a dozen other places where one or the other had to be helped around for days. Always at each other's side.

"You have no idea how glad I am to see you," he whispered tightly, cocking a Solo grin. "When – when I thought I'd never see you again . . ."

Imposing emerald eyes stared up at him from her position kneeling on the floor. "Your heart bottomed out, whatever you'd eaten last turned inexplicably to stone, the blood rushed out of your face, your eyes widened and for a moment your mind went blank. When you finally worked up the nerve to think again, the only thought was 'no'."

Jacen blinked. "How . . ?"

"You have done this to me twice, Jacen Solo, and neither time did I appreciate it. However," she favored him with a rare, small smile. "I will not say that I am not overjoyed to have you back."

Neither of them was quite sure how they ended up with their arms wrapped around each other, holding them for all they were worth. When Jacen felt something wet on his shoulder, he was astounded to realize Tenel Ka was crying – almost as hard as he was! Still, he managed to choke ut what he wanted to say.

"I missed you so much, I couldn't let myself die, couldn't not while there was a chance that I might be found, and brought back – back to you! I'd already lost everything else: Anakin, Jaina, but you held on, as you always had, and never let go!"

She pulled back to look at him, hair down to his earlobes and brandy-brown eyes that lidded in synch with her own when she kissed him. "I was close indeed to seeking Jaina out and joining her. Vengeance called me as it never has, for you, for your brother, for – for those who have gone before us. But laughter, Jacen, your chosen weapon, does not fit well in the robes of a Nightsister."

"Tenel Ka? I . . . I can't imagine life – or death – without you. I . . ." he paused, apprehensive.

Tenel Ka smiled wholeheartedly and murmured "I love you, too," before kissing him again.


	8. Carratos

Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars, or even JJK. Dammit . . . 

A/N: AHH! School! Nooooooo!!!!!

Chapter VII: Carratos

". . .won't be coming to help us! They can't even protect their own capitol!"

The crowd marched unending before the speaker, faces human and alien, all hardened for the fight of their lives. Carratos was their world, and they didn't intend to let the Vong have it. "Banding together is the only way! Forget petty squabbles among yourselves, for now! We've wrested Carratos from Imperial grasp before – what are the Vong but an Empire, conquering all in their path?! CAN WE LET IT HAPPEN?!"

"**NO!!**" the people or Carratos shouted, cutthroats, pirates and smugglers all. The female Selonian who addressed the crowd had been stirring up gossip for weeks, both because of her uncommon patriotic attitude towards Carratos and the figure who stood calmly behind her.

The Nightsister Jaina Solo stood with fingers steepled behind the Selonian whom she'd chosen to enforce. Enforce her she could, as well – a band of thieves who'd thought to attack easy prey – a lone human female – had gotten a surprise death, almost flippantly charred by the Dark Force lightning. When the Selonian had heard, she sought out the Nightsister immediately, not even recognizing her as Jaina Solo.

Few people would.

Brandy eyes ringed in red stared out from beneath a draping black hood, and fingers already beginning to twist from the use of Dark side lightning emerged from sleeves that swept down from her arm in triangles that reached past her waist. The full-length black garment clung to her body from hood to hips, were it separated into billowing pant legs that gave the illusion of being a robe. The only part of her body that was visible were her red-ringed, calculating eyes.

Carratos was not her world, and she cared little for the fate of its 'people'. The only reason she was here at all was because it seemed to be the next target in the Vongs path of conquest.

She intended to be an obstruction.

*

"Well? Was our deceased navigator on track?" Sannah asked as they came towards Carratos.

Jacen closed his eyes, reaching to the planet for his twin. If she was down there, she was hiding it well. Then he felt Tenel Ka rested her hand in his. "Stronger together."

He felt Tenel Ka, Zekk and Lowie join him, and even as their minds bonded as they had hundreds of times before, Jacen directed their being to encompass the planet. Jaina was still hiding, though, and no matter how hard he looked, his twin seemed to be no where. They were nearly ready to give up and retreat back to their bodies on the _Rock Dragon_ when Zekk found a trace of recently-used Force. Dark Side lightning, in fact, which he wordlessly pointed out made sense. Zekk led them from then on, able to discover and follow traces of the turned Solo more easily than his companions. He returned first.

"Chofin. It's near a coastline, you ought to be able to get the coordinates from the computer," he said as he came out of the trancelike state. Lowie and Tenel Ka emerged from theirs a moment later, leaving Jacen to come up last. Although he had improved during the three-day trip to Carratos, he was no where near fully healed yet. 

"Zekk, how did you find her trail when even Jacen couldn't?" Tenel Ka inquired. "I was under the impression that the twin-bond is one of the strongest there is."

Zekk sighed. "I've known Jaina for nearly as long as Jacen has. We just have a different kind of bond. She's been turned; I knew what to look for and expect. Jacen didn't."

Jacen was silent, stunned by what they had found instead of his sister. There was a gaping black hole in the Force, a stunning array of torturous thoughts embodied in a facsimile of his twin in black dress.

Lowie growled a comment, sensing Jacens astonishment. Tenel Ka and Zekk nodded in agreement. Zekk grinned. "Well. Guess it's my turn to rescue her!"


	9. Nightsister

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Star Wars. And Tahiri owns Anakin . . .

A/N: um . . . Yes, this is advertising. I've written a bunch of other fics, including one other SW fic that's Qui-Gon's POV as he dies. I also write X-Men: Evolution, X-Men, HP and Mercedes Lackey for anyone interested!

Chapter VIII: Nightsister Jaina

They were checked and rechecked for any evidence that they were, or were working in league with, the Yuuzhan Vong. When they finally checked out as natives of _this_ galaxy they were told to wait, that an envoy would come to meet them.

"What's going on?" Sannah asked Jacen. "I can't understand a word of what that Bith said. You're the language person. Besides, Carratos is a smugglers world; I thought they didn't have any kind of government."

"I think that the only reason this framework has held up is because they've banded together against the Vong, and the Selonian who was with Jaina is holding this territory together."

"Ah. So you have heard of the Kirrenin den's Jaleth," a musical voice rang out from behind them, and the friends leaped around to find a male humanoid standing behind them, his silvery hair drawn back in a loose bun and his eyes – slightly too large for his head – were a bright gray. He seemed whitewashed, in a luminescent kind of way. "As I much suspect you're surprised to find any sort of representative for Carratos, we only approach those who do not use their employers docks directly. It is – safer, that way. Jaleth herself is trying to rally the people of this planet, to rouse a planet-wide response to the danger the Yuuzhan Vong represent. Even smugglers are aware enough to be hated by the Vong simply for the way we live, which is nearly worse than the Empire." The humanoid shrugged. "Well. My name is Yainne, and if you are interested – and not here on other business – Jaleth and her second-in-command wish to speak with newcomers to Carratos."

The group exchanged a glance. "Who is this second-in-command? We're on Carratos looking for a friend of ours; is there any chance this could be her? Human, about nineteen standard years, brown hair and brown eyes?"

Yainne shrugged. "I'm afraid I cannot tell you. Most of what we see of Jaleth's enforcer is red eyes, so she may or may not be the friend you're looking for."

Zekk and Jacen exchanged a glance, and Lobacca growled.

*

"If this really is going to be easier than we thought it was, then where _are_ they? And what do we do if this second-in-commend isn't Jaina?"

"I wouldn't worry about that, Melodie."

The black-robed simulacra of Jaina Solo stood calmly in the doorway, red-ringed brandy eyes all that showed out from underneath the shadowed hood. Jacen, who had his back to her, stiffened. _That is not my sister! She was my sister once, but she isn't anymore!_

"Zekk, Lowbacca, Tenel Ka! And Sannah, I remember you," Jaina's voice was silky-smooth and full of sultry venom. "Now, who is this, who is this? I take it the "friend" you came here after is – **_JACEN?!_**"

Her other half just looked up at her, terror and remorse in his brandy eyes even as Jaina flung back her hood to reveal a face purple with bruises. Tenel Ka reached over and put a possessive hand on Jacen's shoulder. Jaina's shoulder-length brown hair had been shorn to a mere three inches, and the creature that walked in after her was just as alarming as her Dark appearance.

The four-legged, clawed, fanged creature had a face like a human skull and two tusks that stuck out straight from each corner of it's mouth. Long, pointed ears perked up at the sound of others in the room and the other teeth came into view as it growled. Jacen's attention, of course, immediately shifted.

"Where did you get a shook? They're really dangerous!" he said as he bent down and scratched it behind it's ears. The shook purred, and Sannah just _looked_ at Jacen.

"Jacen?" Jaina's voice was weak, barely a whisper. "_Jacen?_"

Tenel Ka stood, her hand still resting lightly on Jacen's shoulder. "Jaina, my friend, all is not lost. All is _never_ lost, when you have hope and life. Come with us – we need your help."

Shocked and wordless Jaina backed out of the room, bumping into Jaleth and racing down the hall. The Selonian stuck her head into the plush meeting room.

"We are not here to stay," Tenel Ka told her. "We are here to make an offer to your 'Nightsister'."

"I'll be back," Zekk promised, then took off down the hall after Jaina.


	10. Kidnapped

Disclaimer: I DO NOT own star Wars. I promise.

A/N: I'm soooo sorry I took so long to update! I started this irritating thing called school. **groans** I leaped on the computer, wrote this, and prayed that someone out there remembered me. This has got to be the first time in more than a week that I've written anything! I'm going mad!

Chapter IX: "Did you ever get kidnapped as children?"

Sobs racked a body brought to it's last, short hair hung forlornly over eyes so drenched in tears that their owner could not see. She was hidden under a hundred black folds and it was her death shroud. She could not see, she could not hear, she could not touch – no until something touched her.

She didn't, couldn't physically feel it. A soothing presence. She had never been one to be coddled, but it didn't coddle her. It – or rather, he – didn't expect anything more or less than what he found. He accepted it, worked past it, and delved slowly through her inner barriers until he stood at the threshold of the very last one. This last he would not penetrate unless invited, but he didn't need to. He was no longer an abstract presence, he was an identifiable personality within her tortured mind.

_*Zekk_ . . .*

He spoke no words; none were needed. Zekk didn't so much comfort her as he did wrap her in his wings until he was certain he could release her without harm. Jaina was flooded with him, immersed and enveloped by his understanding. He knew, as none of the others did, what had happened to her. He found her when she was lost in the dark. He was _not,_ however, going to put up with her if she didn't work toward getting where she wanted. If she wanted to come back to the light he would help her but he would neither make excuses nor accept them.

_*Jaina?_* Zekk inquired hesitantly when she was coherent enough to understand the voice in her mind and all the feelings it carried with it. Jaina heard but did not answer.

Then there was another presence in her mind, one she did not recognize as quickly. _*Go on. He knows what he's doing, for once. You owe him a rescue after this_,* the whisper seemed to chuckle. _*Go on, Jaya_.*

Jaina gasped her way back to consciousness, eyes snapping open and fingers clenching around Zekks arms. "Anakin!" she cried. "ANAKIN!!"

*

Jacen grinned and wrapped an arm around Tenel Ka's waist. "C'mon, Lowie, Sannah. Zekk's got her." She was scarred, but she would heal. With time and the help of friends and family, Jaina would heal.

"You mean you can sense her again?" Sannah piped up as they left the room, following Jacen unerringly as the shook trailing behind.

"Yeah," Jacen poked his head in the door where he felt his twin, who was already staring at the doorway, expecting him. "So. Heard from our deceased brother yet?"

*

The shook, whom they discovered Jaina had called Kievnur – meaning "Vengeance fire" in Selonian – was quite happy to go along with them, provided she got to stay close to one or both of the Solo twins. She put up with the others by default only.

"I wonder what Master Ikrit would have thought of Kievnur," Sannah commented as the shook wrapped it's tail and hind legs around a girder to sleep. "He also had the gift of animal speech."

"I suspect he would have thought Kievnur was going to eat him," Zekk observed wryly as he stood behind Jaina, who was helping Uldir prep the _Rock Dragon_ for launch. Tenel Ka wasn't about to leave Jacen's side when there were two much more qualified pilots available. "Alright, O dead Jedi, that's two for two. Where are we going next?"

Uldir cocked his head, taking on the peculiar 'listening' pose that he assumed whenever Anakin spoke to him. Although few of the Jedi could speak directly mind-to-mind, Anakin used the bonds erected between himself and others to scurry around on. As he didn't have a physical body he could do things with his mind that simply weren't possible for the living. This time Uldir 'listened' for longer than he ever had before.

"Um, Uldir . . ?" Sannah spoke up.

The pilot shook his head in an effort to wake himself up. Then he turned to Jaina, who was waiting for the coordinates. "Um – did the three of you ever get kidnaped as children?"

Jaina and Zekk laughed so hard they could hardly stand.

"What? What?" Uldir asked, confused.

"We've – been – kidnaped so many – times that I'm – not actually – sure – who all the people who – kidnaped us – were!" Jaina choked out between laughs.

The look on Uldir's face was priceless. "Fine. A guy named Hethrir?"

Jaina shuddered a little. "That's where we met Lusa. He was selling the aliens as slaves, and wanted to sacrifice Anakin."

"Apparently he also wanted Anakin's Force-potential for his own, because he created a clone."


	11. Solo Luck

Disclaimer: If I said I owned Star Wars, Lucas would "Use the Lawyers"

A/N: school sucks. It takes time away from writing. I apologize for my lack of updates! Don't kill me! (see, then you don't get to read the rest. I have an ace in the hole!)

Chapter X: Solo Luck

"He **what?!**"

Jorus clapped metaphysical 'hands' over his 'ears', regardless of the fact that it wouldn't help. "Created a clone. I found it because I've _been_ cloned; I have experience. Much the same way young Zekk found your sister – although not quite." the old Jedi winked.

Anakin shook his head, hardly able to believe it. "Is this Solo luck or what? I find a way to come back, my family screws me up by burning my body, and then I find a clone. Sithspawn!"

"Anakin!" the Solo heard a familiar voice and turned. Lyric floated beside him, her tail a shimmering blue due to the effect this world had on her, on all the Jedi who died. "I finally collected everything. Well, everything the Masters will allow you to take back with you. Greetings for friends and family, a few assurances and a couple of lectures."

"I don't know if I can remember all that," Anakin moaned. By now he'd gotten used to seeing Lyric again, even if she was dead.

She dismissed his worries with a webbed hand. "You don't have to, not really. I'll store it in your personal Force-well so you can reach it when you find the people they're keyed to," Lyric extended one of her hands and touched his head. For a moment his every thought was contained in those messages, and then they vanished without a trace into his subconscious.

"Thanks. I suppose, since they're getting near that worldship, I ought to go check up on my resurrection committee," Anakin grinned wryly. "Never thought I'd hear myself say _that_."

Lyric laughed, her voice like the waters she lived in. "No one did, Anakin, rest assured of that!"

"Hey, Ani?"

The blond began banging his head against the blue mist. He'd acquired that nickname when a few of the Jedi discovered that his grandfather had used it. "Anakin, Lusa, I beg of thee," he implored. The crimson-flanked centaurian snorted.

"_Anakin_, then, human," she corrected herself, grinning. Her tail swished lightly. "Once you check up on our old friends you'd better make a stop at the _Errant Venture_. Tahiri's hit a rut."

The human started at the crimson-haired Jedi. "What do you mean, a rut?"

Lusa sighed. "They can't get her out of the age she's in, and she's getting worried that you've spent all this time on Coruscant without calling her. If you can push her up another year or so, it would buy us more time."

He nodded as Lyric shimmered away. "Because they'll snap her back if they have to, and then we'll have no time at all. They won't even be able to 'fix' my body if I want to get back to the _Errant Venture_ before Tahiri . . . does something rash," Anakin ground his teeth in frustration. "I wish there was something else I could do! I feel so useless just sitting here and letting them do everything to bring _me_ back!"

"You _can_ do something," Lusa pointed out. _Humans_, she thought, stamping an annoyed hindhoof. _So defeatist_. "Check in with the resurrection team, then encourage Tahiri. Go on!" she shooed him away, and Anakin shimmered off.

*

He shimmered back in Tahiri's room on the _Errant Venture_. She was pacing back and forth, still dressed in the outdated orange jumpsuit, muttering to herself. "There's something wrong. If Anakin was going to be gone this long, he'd have told me! Or at least called. And where are Jacen and Jaina? They're usually here when Anakin's on Coruscant!"

_Oh, boy_ . . . Anakin perched on the edge of Tahiri's bed, watching her. _Alright, then, here goes nothing_. _*Tahiri?*_ he nudged her mind with the force. Flipping through the memories she'd blocked, he drew the memories of the next six months into her forebrain. Nomi Sunrider, possibly the most talented Jedi in history in Jedi Battle Meditation and mind manipulation, had taught him (for the duration of his time deceased) how to subtly alter another Jedi's perception of time. The memories became present and then past in the space of a second. He let her go when they had graduated out of their orange jumpsuits, after which he _had_ gone back to Coruscant with his entire family, including Jacen and Jaina.

When he was done, he sat there, staring as Tahiri relaxed. _Sithspawn, I miss you_, he thought. _I'm here, Tahiri. Don't give up_, he sighed. _I'd better not give up, or _neither_ of us is going to get through this with a modicum of sanity_.


	12. Worldship

Disclaimer: I own neither Star Wars in general nor any of these characters in particular. All belong to the genius George Lucas/whichever writer created them. Hail Timothy Zahn for Mara Jade, right?

A/N: I have this evil thing called school that keeps me from updating as frequently as I should. It's annoying, and the problem with it is that it actually effects this thing I call real life, which is just annoying in and of itself. So I will update as fast as I possibly can under restrained conditions! Just remember that this I exist, please! (and check out my other fics, SW and otherwise. OMG, XME premiered! AHH! **insert girlish squeal**)

Chapter XI: Worldship

As Jaina and Uldir approached the almost-dead worldship, Jaina shuddered. "This place brings back bad memories, regardless of whether or not it's a different worldship. Somehow, this is so like Hethrir that I'm not even going to question it."

Sannah leaned over and pushed the internal comm unit, calling up the infirmary. "Tenel Ka, wake Jacen up, we're there."

The worldship was barren, with only one well-concealed dock. "There," Zekk pointed to Jaina. She pulled the _Rock Dragon_ around and pulled in. Uldir's fingers flashed across the board, trying to communicate to the automated worldship who they were and what they needed. When the computers finally understood that they were here to "inspect" their progress on the clone it beamed at them, and instantly gave them access to almost everything. "I've got a map here, regardless of what Anakin says, I'd rather not run into any surprises left for anyone who disturbed Hethrir's slightly sick little factory. The computers like us for now, but I get the feeling that if we do anything without telling them, they'll suck the air out of the place."

Zekk stared at the other man. "Wonderful. We have to be careful about offending computers."

The team of eight made their way slowly through the darkened worldship, following the vague instructions Uldir had gotten from Anakin. It took them what seemed like years to reach the center of the worldship, where they would find the cloning chamber. They finally found a huge set of double-doors, behind which were another set of doors. Uldir moved wordlessly to a console right of the doors. The computers were already waiting for them, and let them into the chamber with very little persuasion.

It was an incredible, creepy sight. Slightly outdated cloning facilities . Everything needed to grow a healthy human clone. Lights still blinked in the dark, machines doing their forgotten jobs after fourteen years. Shadows shrouded everything else, including the cylinder of fluid that ruled over every aspect of the room.

There was a flick, and decade-old glowpanels began to brighten for the first time in fourteen years. "And there was light," Zekk remarked from behind the rest of the group, his hand on the master-switch.

The room lit up from the outside in, so the last thing to be revealed was the figure in the fluid.

"Sithspawn," Jacen whispered.

Anakin Solo hung suspended in the bacta-like fluid, eyes closed and motionless.

Jaina was the first to approach, pressing a trembling hand to the glass. "There's no one there," she hissed softly. "It lives – but does little else."

_Anakin? _ Uldir thought, knowing he was there. _What happened to the clone?_

_*He's alright. I explained things to him, and he offered before I could even ask. He's never lived, so he doesn't value his life or the lives of others. The Jedi actually don't mind – they ask him if they need a callous opinion. Besides, since he's never lived, the Masters can send him on to a body of his own. Might be interesting if he were born a Vong_.*

_You've developed a weird sense of humor since you died._

*I'm staring at myself of fourteen years through someone elses' eyes. I deserve the refuge of strange humor.*

Point taken.

"That really is Anakin. I recognize him. Though the long hair is a new look," Sannah remarked.

Lowie growled a question in Uldir's direction. "Master Uldir, Master Lowbacca wishes to inquire how we might begin the process of ensouling this clone?"

Jacen snorted. "Actually, it was more like 'What do we do first?'"


	13. Nerves

Disclaimer: I own none of this. There isn't even an OC!

A/N: Uhm . . . Schoolwork got in the way? I'm just now starting to pick up the pieces of my fan fiction life as I know it. So bear with me in the long time between chapters - I'll do my best, I promise!

A/NII: I'm one of those authors who insists that only people who leave reviews have actually read this story. So please, if you want to exist to me, please leave a review (of any kind, really. Just like to know you've been here!)

Dedication: To telekona, whose name I'm not sure I spelled right, whom I just recently met (THAT was freaky!), and whose fics in all realities have tons of potential. She's reviewed this fic, so look her up and read her stuff!

Ah . . . May the Force be with you?

Chapter XII: Nerves

Before they ensouled the near-lifeless clone, the resurrection team had work to do. "He's been floating in there for a lifetime," Sannah stared as Jacen, Zekk and Lowie lifted the clone out of the tank with the Force. "His muscles can't have atrophied; they never worked! How long is it gonna take for him to be able to stand, much less walk?"

Jaina, Tenel Ka, and Uldir were negotiating with the computers, trying to convince them that they were here legitimately. Finally, Tenel Ka argued that they had gotten him out of the cylinder, hadn't they? Wasn't that proof enough?

The computers reluctantly agreed, and forked over the information they would need to get Anakin up and on his feet within a standard week or so. "See that equipment over there?" Uldir gestured to the table and bank of consoles on the left side of the room. "We're using a combination of electricity, bacta, basic stimulants and the Force to bring his body up to it's full physical potential in something like a thirtieth of the time it would naturally take."

The Melodie blinked. "Okay. Can we cut the hair? It looks weird."

_*Hey, Uldir? Stop her before she actually does it. I wanna try having hair that long_.*

Uldir raised his eyebrows. "Sure. Uh, Sannah? Don't. Anakin says he wants to try having long hair."

Jacen, Jaina and Sannah blinked. "Alright," Zekk laid the body down on the table. "Whatever you want, Anakin. That's the idea, right? I mean, we're bringing him back to life!"

*

"Tahiri?" Tionne called. She had trouble calling the girl with the Force since she'd regressed. "Tahiri?"

"Tionne? Hi!" the blond practically bounced up to her. "I was kinda hoping to find you. The Temple seems so much bigger without Anakin or Sannah in it. I mean, I know they wanted to go see their families, and of course Ikrit went with Anakin, but I still miss them. Did they have to go at the same time?" she paused, then looked up at Tionne. "Never mind! You were looking for me?"

She older Jedi snapped herself back to reality, of sorts. "Yes. I just wanted to warn you not to leave the Temple for a while. Jacen disturbed a flock of some of the moons nastier native species and they followed him back to the Great Temple. Until we know they're gone we don't want any of the younger students to go outside."

Tahiri nodded. "That's so like Jacen. But can't he convince them to leave us alone?"

Tionne bit her lip and thought fast. The area that Tahiri considered the yard outside the Great Temple was the docking bay, and there would be ships coming and going for the next few days at such close intervals that they were just going to leave the docking bay doors open. So she had to keep Tahiri out of the docking bay. "He could, but if he did it would completely alter their natural instincts, perhaps permanently, and we don't want to effect the wildlife that way. It's not fair to them; they're just doing what they're meant to do."

"That makes sense," Tahiri nodded again. "Right. Well, I'm gonna go 'think at rocks' some more!"

The musician leaned against the wall as Tahiri turned a corner. It became harder and harder to talk to the girl as she edged slowly up to her real age. She'd fortunately moved up a year or more since they'd last spoken, into the time when the Solo twins were friends with Anja, who'd called the Force 'thinking at rocks'.

The musician leaned against the wall as Tahiri turned a corner. It became harder and harder to talk to the girl as she edged slowly up to her real age. She'd fortunately moved up a year or more since they'd last spoken, into the time when the Solo twins were friends with Anja, who'd called the Force 'thinking at rocks'.

The musician leaned against the wall as Tahiri turned a corner. It became harder and harder to talk to the girl as she edged slowly up to her real age. She'd fortunately moved up a year or more since they'd last spoken, into the time when the Solo twins were friends with Anja, who'd called the Force 'thinking at rocks'. Tionne turned around herself and made her way toward the communication center. Uldir had left his ship, the _Tale End_, in the _Errant Venture_'s docking bay when he, Jacen, Zekk and Lowie had come here to pick up Sannah and Tenel Ka, then left in the _Rock Dragon_. They had permission to do all this from Mara, but Tionne wanted to know where they'd taken Sannah, and when Uldir would be back to pick up his skiff.

Taking one of the only two console not occupied by docking technicians, Tionne called up the _Rock Dragon_. Em Teedee answered. "Oh!" the round droid flustered. "Mistress Tionne! How may I be of assistance?"

"I was wondering when you plan on bringing Sannah back," the pearly-haired Jedi replied. "She does have training to do."

"Ah – yes, well, you see – this may go on for an indefinite amount of time."

Tionne raised her eyebrows. "And this means that . . ?"

"Neither I nor anyone else here is exactly certain when we'll be back," he clarified.

"You don't know when you'll be coming back? Then where are you?"

Em Teedee bobbed in the air. "I'm afraid, Mistress Tionne, that I'm under rather strict orders not to tell you. Mistress Skywalker knows, however, and I've been asked to tell you that if you wish to know, you should ask her."

"Em Teedee," Tionne could hardly believe she was hearing this. "Sannah's my student. I have every right to know where she is, and inform you that having her gone is not helping matters! It's one more person to make up an excuse for why Tahiri can't find them!"

"I will be sure to pass on your message, Mistress Tionne," the hovering ovoid somehow gave the impression of a nod, then the screen went blank. Tionne, mildly annoyed at the droid, called up the _Rock Dragon_ again. This time, she got no answer.

"Kam!" she yelled. Again.

Her husband reflected that this whole situation was wearing on her nerves.


	14. The Phoenix Effect

Disclaimer: I need to come up with more inventive ways to say "I don't own Star Wars" . . . 

A/N: BOO! Happy Halloween, four or so days late. Oh, well. SPIDER-MAN JUST CAME OUT ON VIDEO!!! I watched it three times in two days. Yea. Just thought I'd share.

Dedication: I do NOT read enough SW fanfic to dedicate this to anyone in particular . . . To Silverangel, who really needs to get going and write a SW fanfic and who has urged me to update this as quickly as possible (so she can read What Happens Next)

May the Force be with you . . . (please?)

Chapter XIII: The Phoenix Effect

"Tell Anakin that we're as ready as we're ever going to be," Jaina turned to Uldir.

The resurrection team had been working in shifts for three days over a standard week, monitoring equipment and using the Force to speed the effects as quickly as they could without harming the clone. They'd prepared his body as much as they could for the outside world; a world with bacteria and virii and a million other things that it had never experienced while hanging in a fluid-filled tube. The computers had been rather astounded as how quickly the clone was adapting, and sped up their processes to keep up with the Force. By this time, however, the computers were running on excess energy, as was every living being in the Worldship. Even Jaina's shook, Kievnur, had grown used to the Jedi and begun helping, fetching food, supplies and tools when Jaina, Jacen, or Zekk asked. She had also adopted a new hobby: droid hunting!

Em Teedee found it annoying. Everyone else thought it was funny as hell.

"He _can_ hear you, Jaina," Uldir reminded her. "He's been living in my head for longer than he thought was necessary. He's ready, too, especially after yesterday."

They'd decided they didn't want to try anything complicated with the Force until they were all up to full strength, so they'd used yesterday as a rest day, and as a day for the computers to finish getting the clone ready to get up and go. Anakin had a rather bad reaction to that – Tahiri had been moving up her timeline faster than ever, and he was terrified that she was going to find out he was dead before he had a chance to get back to her. She'd just gotten captured by the Vong, and therefore was acting as if everyone on the _Errant Venture_ were Yuuzhan Vong. Then he'd had to go occupy Uldir's mind, and didn't know what happened after that.

"Right," Jacen had a hard expression on his face, as if he were preparing himself for this to fail.

Sannah looked around. "Hey. Lighten up. It'll work."

Tenel Ka nodded in agreement with her. The others, save Uldir, nodded, relaxed, and linked hands around the clone and Uldir. And Anakin, who was still in Uldir's head. _*You ready, Uldir?_*

_Considering that I'm sitting here with my hands on your head, yeah I think so_.

Anakin sounded embarrassed. _*Ah. Yes. Here goes, then!*_

Lightning raced through Uldir's body as all Anakin's Force talent and being jumped from his hands and into the clone. The bubble of Force around them kept his consciousness from leaking out, and since Uldir's body was already occupied, he leaped into the clone.

Who wasn't a clone anymore.

Ice-blue eyes snapped open and he sat up in a silent scream, face gone absolutely white.

"Anakin!" Sannah yelled, dropping out of the circle and hugging him. It took a second for the boy to respond, but he wrapped his arms around her. "You're back!" she danced away, light in her yellow eyes.

Jacen and Jaina enveloped him. For a full minute, none of the three even moved. "Hi," his voice was younger than they were used to hearing it, more prone to cracking. "Jasa. Jaya. Um, ouch," the fourteen-year-old body put a hand to his head, wincing. "My head hurts."

Tenel Ka reached past Jacen with her right hand and grasped Anakin's. "Pain means you're alive. Welcome back."


	15. Lost Without You

Disclaimer: I am NOT George Lucas. nuff said

A/N: I hope to get these out faster again, so I churned this little thing out so that people who actually REVIEW to encourage me to update. y'know, tell me what they thought. I like knowing how people react to what I write. It makes me write faster. Just ask the reviewers of my XME fic, "Lovely Pointed Ears"! (and don't ask them about the sequel…) Also, shameless plug: there's this colorful little name up here somewhere that says 'Jimaine'. wouldja click it and check out the other stuff I've written (yes, I've written more than one Star Wars)? Anything you like? Pleeeeeease? (_no_, I wouldn't beg…)

Chapter XIV: Lost Without You

"**_NOOOOOO!_**"

Tionne tried to shield herself against the anguish, tried with everything she had learned in all her years of Jedi training, but she couldn't. Nothing, no one, could block that, not when it was that strong. Not when it was that deep.

Hidden in the Core were most of the Jedi not out fighting the Vong. When Tahiri's mind exploded in agony each and every Jedi within the Core doubled up, trying desperately to keep a hold on consciousness. Most managed it, though some didn't, and those who did did so only because Tionne and Kam had warned them that they were going to snap Tahiri back to the present. If they didn't, they ran the risk of losing her forever.

Little did they guess that without Anakin in the past, present, or future, Tahiri was lost to them anyway.

"_no_," she whimpered, curled up on her bed. Short blond hair ringed her head, and sea-green eyes were closed tight against a world gone suddenly and decidedly mad. "no . . ."

Eyes that saw the _Errant Venture_, eyes that saw the empty spaces where Jedi and trainees should be, eyes that were blank and lost and drowning in a sea that had nothing to do with water. Eyes that opened on Tionne and Kam, who thought for a moment that something else had replaced the Tahiri they'd raised and taught for six years.

In truth, something had.

The tattoos and alterations the Yuuzhan Vong made were all the more obvious now, for an inexplicable reason. Her blond hair reinforced the idea that she wasn't entirely of this galaxy, that she was somehow half and half. When she had known she wasn't Vong, when she had someone there to tell _everything_ to, when she . . . when she had _Anakin_ she was, for the most part, the same person she had always been. When _she_ knew she was human, and innocent, and a victim, she looked human in other's eyes. Older, wiser, changed a bit, but in her heart she'd known that no matter what happened, no matter how strange a creature the Vong made her, no matter what others or even she thought of herself, there was someone who would share what she went through, never care how she looked and would always think the best of her. 

Who wouldn't let her die without kissing her.

When nothing Tionne or Kam could say would bring Tahiri from her tears they left, hoping she could find peace in her own time.

_Peace_ . . . totally unshielded, Tahiri was open to the thoughts of every Jedi who was too close. Tionne, who'd been the Jedi who found her, who had been one of her closest friends, couldn't hope to shield her thoughts from Tahiri. Although the Jedi was no longer picking up Tahiri's misery, Tahiri was picking up thoughts from her. 

And there was one only place that a Jedi could gain peace, in all the lore Tionne had ever taught her. She just had to be sure, first, had to know. Then – 

_Jedi find their peace in death_.


	16. Keep Walking

Disclaimer: I DO NOT own Star Wars. We won't discuss what would be going on if I did . . .

A/N: Ahh! I'm so sorry for my long hiatus. I will have more up, but ALL my fanfic muses have abandoned me lately. X-Men: Evolution, Star Wars, HP, Mercedes Lackey (oh, man, I am dry!) . . . Okay. I will finish this, I promise it will not lay here, unfinished (like some of my other things . . .) So please, be patient with me. Updates will come as soon as they're written, and I'll try not to be more than a week between updates!

Okay. Done. Read, and wait for more!

****

Chapter XV: Keep Walking

Anakin swung his legs off the table, wincing. All the training his body had gone through was purely artificial, with the exception of the Force. Now his mind was burning it's imprint into the brain of the clone body he inhabited, and directing muscles for the first time in over a month. "Well, Sithspawn. I _can_ physically walk, but I'm not used to it."

"You'll have time to get used to it. The _Errant Venture_ is hidden in the Core, and we're among the Rim Worlds," Sannah told him. "And that hair looks really, really weird."

"It feels weird," Anakin replied. "But I don't care. I need to get back there. Can we go?"

"Oh, most definitely. No offense, Anakin, but I am very glad you're out of my head," Uldir remarked. "It weighs less."

"Wonderful, as mine weighs more. _Please_, can we go?"

Jaina laughed. She was a far cry form the Nightsister they'd found; even a good number of the bruises had faded. The work had done her immeasurable good, and the shine was back in brandy eyes, the laugh back in her voice. "Yeah. Let's go!"

They cleaned the workstation, reassured the irate computers, boarded the _Rock Dragon_ and blasted away from the worldship faster than Anakin could ask to leave.

*

"It's a little weird," Sannah confessed as she accompanied Anakin on his umpteenth round of the _Rock Dragon_. He figured he'd better get used to walking again, and this seemed to be the best way to do it. "Having you back again, I mean. Can any Jedi do this? Come back?"

Anakin shook his head, trying to concentrate on putting one foot in front of the other. "If they could, Obi-Wan would have come back a dozen times since Vader killed him. And a good dozen of the Jedi want to get all the Jedi together and have a long, long talk with them on our current minor civil war. They do kinda get to have a word in, though."

"What do you mean?"

"So many of the Jedi had words to say to currently living Jedi that the people who were helping me come back let the most important plant messages in my head. I won't remember them until I see that person, upon which they pop to the front of my head and beg to be said."

Sannah laughed at that image. "Sounds kinda uncomfortable."

Before Anakin could reply, Uldir stuck his head out of the communication console. "Hey, Sannah! Tionne left you a message before we blasted into hyperspace."

"Coming. Come with me?"

"Sure. Let's see what Tionne has to say, hmm?" he had a bit of a wicked gleam in his eye, and Sannah got the distinct feeling that he was as glad to be back as they were to see him.

Tionne's message was short, to the point, and frightening.

"Sannah, get back here. Now. We had to bring Tahiri up, and she needs a friend. Badly. We don't know what will help, but right now, we'll take anything. She needs you, Sannah."

Anakin and Sannah faced each other, faces white. "Oh, Force. They brought her back. I was hoping . . ." his new body staggered a bit with shock, and Uldir caught him. Before Anakin was even steady on his feet he sent his mind out, reaching for the _Errant Venture_. But he couldn't. They were too far apart.

With physical bodies come physical limitations, but now Anakin wished with all his heart that he could bounce around the galaxy the way he had when he was little more than a thought with Force-talent. He came back all at once, and slid into a seat. "I hoped I could get there before she realized . . ."

"We just have to go quickly, Anakin. Don't _you_ fret yourself into having hysterics, too, or you'll probably effect her!" Sannah pointed out. "Get up and keep walking. Work on _running_, Anakin, 'cause I know that's what you're gonna do the instant we hit the _Errant Venture_."

He nodded slowly. "I will get there in time," he told himself.

Then he got up, and went on.


	17. Soulsore

Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars, I'm just an annoyed fangirl who decided to put the galaxy to rights (no, I don't have delusions of grandeur . . .)

A/N: Hey all! Guess what? My computer's working again!! Yea! The very first thing I did as soon as I could get at it was stick this next chapter on the compu w/internet and post it. So here it is - Palace of Dim Night is BACK!

Chapter XVI: Soulsore

If the _Errant Venture_ hadn't been full of Jedi, only those closest to Tahiri would be worried about her. The blond girl was up and about and although her manner was stiff, formal and utterly unlike her, she didn't seem to be wallowing in sorrow. Outwardly, there were only normal signs of grieving.

But the _Errant Venture_ was full of Jedi, and every thought-sensitive individual on board walked the razor edge when Tahiri stepped into a room.

Every Jedi was polite and friendly, trying desperately to block their thoughts from Tahiri and to keep hers from coming in. Regardless of what they couldn't help but sense from Tahiri, none of the Jedi could help her. There was only time left to heal that wound now, and although she was monitored constantly, the Jedi mostly left her alone. Just being in the same room as the soulsore girl discomforted many of the Jedi.

Which suited Tahiri just fine.

Most of her thoughts and memories were open now, and any Force-sensitive who cared to look could read most of her life in a few short seconds. In her opinion it wouldn't be much to digest: sand, sand, jungle, and then . . . And then her life got slightly more complicated. She found a best friend in Anakin Solo, and from the moment they met her life would go down the throat of anyone reading her, and go down hard. Fortunately for the weaker Jedi who habitually left their own recieving channels open, what little shielding she had was over those memories. Especially her most recent ones, and the path her thoughts strode every time she thought of Anakin. Which was more often than not.

There was a part of her that protested that path, and was constantly dragging behind the rest of her. That part was waning, though, as time passed and it realized that she couldn't be happy without Anakin. Maybe if they had been given the time to grow, and explore, and seep as deeply into each other's lives as Luke as Mara were, maybe then one of them could die without the other wishing to follow.

Someday. But not now.

Tahiri closed the door to her private room and locked it from the inside. Going to the refresher unit, the little part of her still protesting, she opened every door inside and turned the refresher on cleaning mode. The unit was cleaned with a gas; it could clean anything, but it was deadly to humans. Normally the refresher doors would have closed and locked her out before it began to clean itself. Tahiri, using the knowledge she'd gained from time around Anakin and his sister, simply used the Force to block those components from working. The refresher unit let out the gas, and Tahiri inhaled deeply.

It was supposed to be a painless death.


	18. A Peaceful Interlude

Disclaimer: The manuscripts I'd rip apart gleefully if I owned Star Wars . . .

A/N: Yup, sorry for the wait, here's the next chappie! Whee! So close - and yet, so far. Next chapter shouldn't take AS long to get up . . Provided I can spare all of ten seconds a day to write the damn thing . . . Grr.

"You're almost there

With much at stake

But now the ground

Begins to quake"

Chapter XVII: A Peaceful Interlude 

(aka the author deciding to torture you)

Jacen wrapped himself in the light blankets supplied by the _Rock Dragon_. Somehow, even surrounded by the blanket's heat, there was part of him that was cold. He thought he knew what it was, but he wasn't quite sure how to fix it yet. _It's like part of me is still half-asleep in the throat of that space slug_, he thought, trying to confine himself to sleep. His muscles were still sore after having lived off them for the several weeks he was in the slug, but somehow he didn't think that was the reason he hadn't been able to sleep.

Staring at the durosteel ceiling of his room, Jacen actually sat down and _thought_ about what was going on. Zekk, Lowie, Tenel Ka and Sannah believe the word of a guy they've never met who claims he knew Anakin, and that Anakin's trying to come back. He promises Jacen and Jaina back in the bargain, and Tenel Ka lets him pilot her ship to who knows where to find Jacen.

_He had been well more than half asleep, some part of him aware that he would only wake up a few more times before he would never wake up again, healing trance or no. Then that bright spot, a cluster of warmth that he would always recognize, came closer and closer until one of them, the very brightest, leaned over him and pulled him out of the healing trance with his name_.

It had been Tenel Ka, yet again – she'd brought him back from the grave before. His concern for her was one of the things that kept him within reach of the thranta and his rider so many years ago on Cloud City. He hadn't wanted to worry her. Didn't want any of his friends to think he was dead, but it had been the thought of her mourning him more than anything else that drew him back. Her anguished Force signature allowed him to find her as soon as he got back on Cloud City.

Last time, he sought her out and came back to her. This time, she came to him, and although he had been incredibly happy to see Zekk, Lowie and Em Teedee again, he was finally admitting to himself that perhaps the one thing that kept him from never waking up was what she'd do to him if he died.

It was as if the mere thought of her summoned her. She was sitting up in her room, reading – what, he couldn't tell, but something was keeping her from concentrating wholly on her book – the same thought that was keeping him from sleep.

_Maybe_ – Jacen grinned a little. _Maybe I can fix that_ . . .

*

She flicked a strand of violently red hair behind her shoulder, trying to concentrate on the story of Nomi Sunrider set out before her. Tionne had given it to her long ago, trying to teach her that there were other ways of fighting than with the lightsaber.

A knock at her door broke her concentration. She was considering sending whoever it was away, until she felt Jacen's Force-signature. She depressed the opening pad from her nest of covers on the bed. The brown-haired young man stood in her doorway dressed in boxers and a blanket.

Tenel Ka quirked an eyebrow. "A blanket? Not your customary attire, is it, my friend?"

"Nah," Jacen shrugged. He was being casual, but there was uncertainty in his brandy-brown eyes. "I just thought – with everything going on – that maybe we could – talk? Oh, Sithspawn! Can I come in?"

Tenel Ka felt like laughing at the goofy, helpless look on his face, but restrained herself. "Of course." As Jacen (and his blanket) moved from the doorway to sitting at her feet on her bed, the door closed behind him. Setting the Nomi Sunrider document aside, she wrapped her arms around her propped up knees and cocked her head at Jacen. "What has you up when most of us are trying to sleep, anyway?"

"I was – thinking."

"About what?"

Jacen glared at her. "You've gotten a lot more talkative, you know that?"

"You asked if we could talk; I am inviting you to."

"Sure. Use my own logic against me," he smiled. "About the one too many times we've had to drag each other away from certain death."

"Ah. Ah-hah. Ryloth. Bespin. That awful crusade beneath Crystal Reef. The Yuuzhan Vong," her emerald eyes were thoughtful. "It is a rather long list."

"And it's going to get longer," his voice was troubled, and Tenel Ka studied his face. "So I keep seeing you and I, the way we were . . . before . . . and what could happen. I mean, the Vong didn't even wait to get us to the worldship-analog before torturing us."

He wouldn't look at her, so she reached up with her hand and ran one finger across the lower edge of his jaw, turning his head towards her. "We survived before, and we shall survive whatever the Yuuzhan Vong – or anyone else – challenge us with."

"We?" Jacen questioned. Tenel Ka rolled her eyes indulgently.

"It has always been 'we'. Unless one of us has a change of heart, I see no reason to alter that."

He bit his lip nervously. "Did you mean it, then? What you – what you said when I first woke up?"

"I –" she sucked in a breath, then nodded in assent. "Yes. I think part of me has always loved you."

Jacen let out a breath. "Good," he smiled weakly. "Because I've loved you since the first time I saw you."

As the tension leaked out of the room, Tenel Ka smiled in that restrained, eloquent manner of hers. This time, it was Jacen's turn to kiss _her_.

They stayed like that for a moment for two, right arms folded around each other's shoulders. Surprising both herself and Jacen, it was Tenel Ka who broke the comfortable silence. "Maybe now we can both sleep."

"Together?" Jacen asked, slightly shocked.

She nodded again, shyly this time. A new emotion for Tenel Ka. "I've been having trouble sleeping – and I _know_ you have too. I just thought that perhaps the extra comfort . . . unless you'd rather not –"

"No! I mean, I just – wasn't expecting it," Jacen flashed a lopsided grin, diffusing the tense moment. "You have a way of surprising me."

Although Jacen was lying under the blankets he'd dragged with him from his room and Tenel Ka was under hers, they shared a pillow. Somehow it was easier for both of them to let their guard down and sleep with the presence of the other next to them.

Then Jacen was yanked out of sleep by a shock from Anakin.


	19. Stay

Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars. If you haven't figured this out already, you will!

A/N : OH, MY GOD, I FORGOT TO UPLOAD THIS CHAPTER!!!

I can't believe I DID that . . . I'm soooo SORRY! This must have been so confusing . . . Me never explaining what happened . . . AHH! Okay, THIS is chapter XVIII (18), Stay, and it's now in its rightful place.

Oh, man . . .

Ah, well. Mistakes happen, please don't kill me, I haven't finished writing the story yet!

Chapter XVIII: Stay

Anakin sat up in his bed on the _Rock Drgaon_, pouring sweat and choking. "Tahiri!" he whispered fiercely. Then he dove recklessly into the mental bond they still shared, without even the physical restraints his old body had given him. His clone body was tired, but his mind was frantic and alert. Was he close enough to do any good, or would Tahiri be ripped from him just before they had their chance at life?

_*NO!*_ a voice incoherent with fear forced itself into Tahiri's mind. _*Tahiri, don't! Get out of there! Tionne and Kam are on the other side of that door, trying to get in and help you. Let them! Please, please, Tahiri, don't you dare give up on me now!*_

A vision of Anakin formed slowly in Tahiri's gas-fogged mind, and she strained to reach him. "Anakin," she murmured. "I'm coming, I promise . . ."

_*NO! Stay right where you are, _I'm_ coming to _you_! Let them help you, Tahiri, please. Wait for me. Stay_ . . !* and then his mind-voice faded, but not what he'd told her to do.

She reached out one hand toward the door and with the last strength left in her, lifted the lock.

*

Anakin collapsed into unconsciousness as soon as his message reached Tahiri; the twins leaped out of their beds when they sensed something was wrong.

Jacen and Jaina appeared outside his door at a run. "Anakin?" Jacen yelled, pounding on the durosteel. There was no response. "Anakin, what's wrong? Jaina and I sensed something. Anakin?"

The twins shared a worried look as a sleepy Tenel Ka walked patiently from the same direction Jacen had come from. This, of course, caused Jaina to think and her mind derailed for a moment from the train of thought labeled "Anakin" as she turned a look that demanded an explanation on her twin and her friend.

"No, Jaina, my friend, we did _not_ do what your sordid mind is considering. Why are we awake, exactly?" Tenel Ka inquired.

"It's Anakin," Jacen explained. "Jaina and I sensed . . . something . . . and now we he's not answering. You don't think – something went wrong with the cloning?"

"No, he's in there, he's just unconscious," Jaina concentrated. The lock clicked and the door opened with a mechanical _hiss_. The twins spilled into the room simultaneously, ignoring the fact that the doorway was too small for both of them to get in at the same time.

Anakin was lying in his bed, sheet drawn over his legs and rumpled about his waist as if he'd sat up and hadn't bothered pulling it back up when he lay down. His hair was curled beneath him, crumpled in a way that couldn't be comfortable. Lips were thinned and eyes shut tightly as if he'd been concentrating with all his effort when he just keeled over.

"Anakin!" Jaina cried and ran over, grabbing Jacen's hand and dragging him with her. They knelt as one, and Tenel Ka almost felt like laughing – because of their varied reactions to their brother's death, they looked almost exactly the same from the back. Then they dipped into their sibling-link, and Anakin woke with a gasp. His face became, if it was possible, even paler. 

"Tahiri!"

"Whoa, Anakin – what happened?" Jacen asked. "Jaina and I got – well, it almost felt like you vanished for a second!"

The younger Jedi took a few deep breaths as color returned to his face. Tenel Ka leaned back against the wall, listening and watching. "I – I'm not sure. One moment I'm asleep, and then next I'm jarred out of it by – it must have been the link I have with Tahiri. She – " His eyes widened as it finally penetrated him exactly what had happened. He drew his knees up to his chest, shocked. Jacen and Jaina exchanged a worried glance. "She tried to kill herself . . ."

The three listeners started at that. Tenel Ka recovered first. "Is she alright? What happened?"

"I – I called her. Asked her to stay . . . I think Kam and Tionne got to her in time. Ugh, but I'm exhausted." He fell back onto the bed, one arms over his eyes. "We have to get back there," he croaked, his newly-woken voice still rough. "Fast."

Jacen nodded, and the three made to leave. "Wait! Jaina!" Anakin opened his eyes and looked at his sister. "When you wake up, you'd better call Mom, Dad, Aunt Mara and Uncle Luke to tell them we're coming home. Oh, and only tell Aunt Mara that I've come back. I kinda want to go find Tahiri before I get attacked by family, and I'll get kidnapped before I even find out where she is if Mom finds out I'm back."

Jaina nodded, and she, Jacen and Tenel Ka left, shutting the door behind them.


	20. Six Standard Hours

Disclaimer: Oh, the manuscripts I'd tear into tiny pieces and BURN if I owned Star Wars . . .

Author's Note: Righto. Okay, sorry for the wait, I had writer's block. But it's all gone now, and it won't be very many more of this story's token short chapters before this thing wraps up ;-) I shouldn't be too long between updating the next few chapters, so keep your eye on this thing!

Dedication: To Kat Tru, who would attempt to kill me for the upcoming cliffhangers if she were near enough to physically do so

Chapter IXX: Six Standard Hours

Mara's eyes were round as she spoke to Jaina. The _Rock Dragon_ was still several systems away, but Jaina had dropped out of hyperspace to talk to her and give her an update. "Aunt Mara, everything's okay here. Anakin's working on getting his body up to snuff – it's never been used, after all. Jacen and I are fine, and we'll be at the _Errant Venture_ in about six standard hours. Are Mom and Dad there?"

"You bet, niece. Leia dragged Han over here to talk to Luke – she felt something in the Force when you brought Anakin back, and she's been asking Luke what it is. They're going to go into shock," Mara shook her head, adjusting Ben's position on her shoulder. "The three of you are going to make a huge difference back here."

"There's only one person Anakin's worried about making a difference with, Aunt Mara. He – he asked me to tell you he doesn't want anyone else told that he's back until he's gotten to Tahiri."

Mara's eyes widened, then she nodded. "He'll be mobbed. Won't be able to get away, and you must know she's been hovering on the knifepoint. Is he so sure he can bring her back?"

"He's the reason she didn't go through with it in the first place. I don't know if she realized he came to her or what, but he reached across all that distance to get to her. And he'll be able to get around the _Errant Venture_ without anyone who doesn't know him knowing it's him – he's three years younger and has hair down to his knees."

Mara thought about this for a moment. "You realize that makes him a year _younger_ than Tahiri, right?"

Jaina laughed. "Yeah, but he's still Anakin. Same as always, if a little – mellowed. He says that his memories of what went on while he was dead – the whole afterlife deal – are fading faster every minute. He does come bearing messages for certain people, though. So you'll do it? Not tell anyone about Anakin until he gets to Tahiri?"

"I think I'll have to tell Luke. He can stall your parents, and the two of you can help. I'll get Anakin to Tahiri, alright?"

"Got it, Aunt Mara. See you in six hours."

Jaina disconnected the comm unit and put the _Rock Dragon_ back into hyperspace.


	21. Run

Disclaimer: If I could buy Star Wars from Lucas, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

A/N: Whee! Nearing the end! I guess I don't have much else to say . . . Have fun reading it? Click my name and find out what other stuff I've written? Oh, and another bring-Anakin-back fic is on my favorite stories.

Anyway. Don't kill me for the cliffy - if I die, you never get to see the end!

Chapter XX: Run

Anakin Solo was frantic. He had managed to get off the _Rock Dragon_ without having a relative see him, and his parents and Luke were too busy fussing over the return of the twins to realize that there was a presence on the _Errant Venture_ that shouldn't be there.

When the ship landed, Mara had been waiting around a bend in the corridor with Ben, and Anakin exited through an emergency hatch in the back while his siblings distracted Han, Leia and Luke at the main ramp. Mara reached out with the Force and mentally "tapped" Anakin on the shoulder. When he rounded the bend, she finally got her first look at him, and spend one stunned moment staring. Then she pulled him into a rough hug.

"Dammit, kid," she muttered, letting him go and fiercely wiping away any trace of tears, "don't _ever_ do that again!"

Anakin grinned sheepishly back at her. "I won't, Aunt Mara. Where's Tahiri?"

"C'mon, follow me."

They walked about half a corridor before Anakin asked, with only a hint of hesitation, "Can we run?"

*

There was no word to describe the creature who was curled up on the bed in Tahiri's room. Her green eyes stared mindlessly, deprived of the everlasting peace she sought, and her hair and clothes were wrinkled, mangled, folded around her in place of the blankets she couldn't seem to figure out how worked.

All that was left in the body was an empty shell, the soul too shocked and worn to bother doing much of anything but lying there and staring. After all, the world she saw was fascinatingly horrible - it was, for the first time, a world without Anakin, and every time she saw something new, the idea ripped into her deeper.

_Anakin is dead._

Is dead.

Dead.

Tahiri - or what was left of Tahiri - couldn't even work up the ambition to attempt to kill herself again. The firmest plan she had was to lay there and waste away. _Nothing Tionne can do about _that_._

She was just spiraling into another bout of depression when she heard the compression of air that accompanied the opening of a door. She didn't even bother moving her eyes to see who had come to check up on her now - just curled herself deeper into the Force so they couldn't touch her with it.

"Tahiri."

_Nonononono!_ She screamed, and with a spasm, her eyes shut. She _knew_ that voice . . . _No, no, no, no! There cannot be _anything_ this cruel! Anakin's DEAD!_

"Tahiri!"

A Presence in the Force so strong, so filled with Light that she screamed again in denial and pain, seemed to leap from the door to her side, wrapping her in his arms and burying his too-young face in her hair. "Please, Tahiri, please . . ."

"NO! **_NO! _**You're _dead!_ Stop it, stop it, no, go _away!_" Tahiri whirled around and pushed him away, backing wide-eyed to the other side of her bed, against the wall. "You're _dead_."

"I was. Now I'm not. I . . ." Anakin reached out with one hand, and Tahiri stared at it like it was a Krayt dragon. "_Please_. I'm here. I'm back. _Tahiri!_"

Terrified green eyes stared up at him, and she reached forth a shaking hand.


	22. Where Once Was Two

Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars, as is made obvious by the fact that this ISN'T PUBLISHED!!

A/N: Yeah . . . I have an apology to make . . . I thought this chapter was already up! So, to make it up to you, I'll post the next chapter tomorrow, so you essentially get two for the price of one. I'm sorry! I thought I'd updated it . . .

Chapter XXI: Where Once Was Two

Tahiri paused, biting her lip, frightened beyond the capacity for rational thought. Anakin though he might go mad. "_please,"_ he whispered, begging.

Her hand extended, and their fingertips brushed.

There was nothing else. There was Anakin and Tahiri, only they weren't two people, two minds, two hearts and souls anymore - where once was two there was now one. A pair of lifetimes of memories and pain and joy and love cascaded across every smashed, broken boundary, until neither could tell where one ended and the other began. Communication no longer involved such clumsy things as words; they had no need of such a primitive system. They - the one soul that inhabited two bodies, the two whose thoughts were ever finished by the other - they felt what the other felt. Emotion traced and cemented a path that had been growing in their minds and hearts since before they met.

_/surprise/stunned/ecstasy/_ met _/hope/joy/relief/_ in a flood of shared emotions. _/love/_ and _/love/_ blended till there was no telling who gave and who received.

How long the two basked in each other there was no telling, but when they finally untangled themselves (as much as they were able - or wanted to), Tahiri sent a scolding _/loss/pain/fear/despair/_ at Anakin, who winced. _/reassurance/_ flashed across to Tahiri, who gave a mental sigh and just sank deeper into their link. Anakin followed, both reluctant to face the physical world, where they were still two people.

*

Mara Jade Skywalker shook her head. From behind her, on her back, Ben burbled. She wasn't sure how it happened, even though she'd been watching. One moment Tahiri was terrified, on the edge of the bed, the next they were so wrapped up in each other she couldn't tell whose hair was whose.

There had been, however, a much more spectacular reaction in the Force. When they connected, Light poured out. Mara suspected she'd be blind if she could see the Light side of the Force in this room right now.

It suddenly occurred to her that if _she'd_ felt that, despite her close proximity, there was no doubt that Luke and Leia had felt it as well. And Leia was not so untrained in the Force that she wouldn't recognize her own son's Force-signature.

_Sithspawn!_ she thought, quickly closing the door. _I get to go play interference again._

Ben felt like he enjoyed the idea. Mara rolled her eyes.


	23. Ready for Anything

Disclaimer: I would looooove to own Star Wars. Can we say 'delete Star By Star'? I knew we could!

A/N: Aaaaand here's the next chappie! Got one more left and an epilogue, I think - and maybe a sequel, if I can get off my duff and write it.

***I APOLOGIZE TO ALL MY READERS** - I _FORGOT_ TO UPLOAD CHAPTER XVIII (18)!! ** It's now been uploaded in its proper place (you'll remember there was a prologue, so the numbers are off). It's called "Stay", and it's the conclusion of Tahiri's suicide attempt. A thousand and one apologies - this is so embarrassing!***

Read and review - tell me whacha think!

Chapter XXII: Ready for Anything

Mara met her frantic sister-in-law outside the door of Tahiri's room, the twins apparently having succumbed under parental interrogation. They, Tenal Ka, Zekk, Sannah, Uldir, Lowie and Em Teedee, along with Jaina's pet shook, followed along behind their elders with sheepish looks on their faces.

The former Imperial assassin, however, could not be cowed so easily.

"You are not going in here until they let us in," Mara declared. "Yes, Anakin's back, yes, he's brought Tahiri back, but none of it will stick unless we let them work it out."

Leia, who had been about to launch into a tirade at Mara, paused, then shook her head. "He's my son, I need to see him!"

"You've had all three of your children restored to you today, Leia - and speaking of that, get over here, you two!" Jacen and Jaina rolled brandy-brown eyes but complied, only to be taken up into a fierce hug by their aunt. "Don't either of you do that ever again!"

"I think that's something we can safely promise, Aunt Mara," Jacen replied impishly.

"And Jaina, what on earth did you do to your hair?" Mara surveyed Jainia's cropped hair, and the young woman turned red. Lowie barked a comment.

"Master Lobacca points out that if you think Mistress Jaina's hair has changed, you should see what Anakin's looks like," Em Teedee needlessly translated.

*

"How did this happen . . . What did you do to your hair?" Tahiri laughed, running her hands through the incredibly long blond hair. "You look really different. Shorter."

Anakin smiled. "Yeah. We ran into a bit of a difficulty when we found out that my body had been burned."

"Wait - if this isn't yours, whose is it, and what happened to the person who was in it before? How did you do any of this in the first place?"

The incessant questioning made Anakin's smile widen. Life wouldn't be the same without Tahiri's incessant chatter, and in the short time after her captivity by the Vong the area around her had seemed unnaturally quiet. Death certainly hadn't been worth it without her.

"Bantha got your tongue?"

"As usual, I was waiting to get a word in edgewise."

And so it was. Anakin and Tahiri, two of the most promising trainees ever to grace the Academy, were a team again. For while it took Luke and Mara nearly ten years to meld, from the moment they met in the Grand Audience Chamber of the Great Temple, Anakin and Tahiri had been more one being than two. Separate, they were powerful, but together –

They were unstoppable.

"Apparently, I wasn't supposed to die, so I scared the robes off a bunch of dead Jedi when I showed up. I don't remember much of what happened while I was dead . . . The memories have been fading since I rejoined the land of the living. All I know is that the body I'm in is my clone, grown at the natural rate since I was three years old. The soul inside the clone had never been conscious in his entire life, so when I explained things to him, he agreed to leave and let me have his body. Again, I don't know the details - one of the others might be able to tell you more, because their memories won't have faded."

"Who are the others? You don't remember anything from when you were dead? Did you ever -" here Tahiri paused, because she knew she'd been having trouble when deprived of Anakin, and she didn't know which memories were real and which were hallucination. "Come see me?"

Anakin hugged her tightly. "All the time," he whispered. Tahiri, reassured, giggled.

"So. What else?"

"Well, Jacen and Jaina are back - Jaina was a Nightsister for a while, and she has _really_ short hair and a pet shook, and I think Jacen and Tenal Ka have finally, permanently gotten together. Oh, and we're going to have to talk to Uncle Luke about Sannah . . ."

Tahiri suddenly looked up, though her hands never left Anakin. "Speaking of Sannah - where is everybody?"

"Probably waiting outside the door, having been stopped by Aunt Mara. She was the only one who knew what was going on."

"So . . . Feel like getting mobbed?"

Anakin took a deep breath. "Alright. You ready?"

"For anything, Anakin Solo. Anything."


	24. Reunion

Disclaimer: Oh, if I owned Star Wars . . .

A/N: I'm sorry I've been so sporadic in updating this, I simply have a crazy life. There's maybe, maybe two more chapters I can squeeze out of this - you'll know it's over when I title a chapter 'epilogue'.

Dedication: To my boys! Said being my adorable rats. If you don't like rats, go to rmca.com and read Mouse Knight. It rocks, and will make you look at rodents in a whole new way!

Chapter XXIII: Reunion

"Anakin!"

It was one spontaneous cry, torn from the throats of two distraught parents and one Uncle. Anakin was, as was predicted, mobbed, although through the hugging and kissing and crying and yelling (during which Mara shut the door in order to keep the entire galaxy from finding out about Anakin's return) Anakin managed to keep a firm hold on Tahiri's hand. Mara took the chance to talk to the other two, less spectacular returns, making sure Jaina and Jacen were alright - and exclaiming over Kievnur, who had backed herself into a corner and was growling. It took both the twins most of the loud reunion to get the shook out of the corner.

As the exclamations died down, and Leia managed to touch all three of her children at the same time, just for reassurance, Luke got up and crossed over to Mara. "You're more to thank for this than we thought about, hmm, love? Thank you."

The redhead smiled. "No thanks needed, Luke. He always was may favorite."

Luke made an insulted sound, and Mara laughed. Ben was smiling fit to break his face - what better place than a room so filled with joy for the poor Force-sensitive child, who'd been exposed to all the sorrow, fear and anger since the Solo children vanished in one form or another. This one time, though, was enough to undo all the negative effects.

"Hey - where's Sannah?" Tahiri glanced over the group, noting the Melodie's absence. After Anakin, Sannah was next on her list of people she wanted to see.

"Tionne and Kam kidnapped her when he got out, and I hope she stands up to interrogation better than the twins did," Luke teased, and Jacen, amused, scoffed.

"I think she could manage that." Zekk grinned. "After all, these two caved almost immediately."

"Oh, thank you for your support!" Jaina whacked Zekk's shoulder. Han and Leia rolled their eyes indulgently at their children and their friends.

"Hey! Do I get to see my cousin, or not?" Anakin slid out of the retinue of family, Tahiri following, and walked up to where Mara was holding the baby. Then his blue eyes glazed, and he looked up at Luke, one hand poised above Ben. After a moment his eyes focused on the world again, and he grinned up at Luke. "Oh, and Uncle Luke? Obi-Wan says he's honored."

Luke started, then smiled. "One of your messages, Anakin?"

"Yeah. For you and Ben."

The Skywalker family, leaning against the door, made quite a peaceful sight. The peace was broken, though, when Luke cleared his throat. "You _do_ all realize that this knowledge can't go beyond the people in this room, who already know?"

"What?!" Leia looked sharply up at her brother, who nodded slowly. "Why not? The whole New Republic should know Anakin's come back! It might restore confidence in the Jedi, in the people, that we can beat the Vong against terrible odds!"

"And it might make others who have loved Jedi wonder why Anakin came back when their son, or lover, or sister or friend, did not. This cannot go beyond this room. That it was possible at all is, as far as I can tell from what Mara's told me, a huge fluke. We burned Anakin's body, and even then it had already begun to decay, and no Jedi would displace another's being and take over their body by force. The New Republic will just have to take confidence in the return of Jacen and Jaina."

"Luke's right, Leia. We can't take the chance," Han agreed, tugging on his son's long hair and grinning the irresistible, lopsided Solo grin.

"So, Anakin," Tahiri wrapped her arms around him from behind and lay her head on Anakin's shoulder. "you're gonna need a whole new life. Step one: new name."

"He could be another long-long Skywalker sibling," Luke winked at Leia, who rolled her eyes and gave her twin a little shove from across the room.

"Hey, careful now, he belongs to me," Mara shot her sister-in-law a look, and the room promptly descended into laughter. Not that anything had necessarily been funny, but it seemed a more comfortable release than tears. Once the laughter died down, Mara took up her husband's point. "Look, Tahiri's right. He can't be Anakin Solo anymore, but he can't just appear out of nowhere, either. I mean, we're in the middle of a war, where did he come from? We can't just say he was another Jedi trainee - none of the Jedi know him. So where's a fourteen-year-old fully trained Jedi come from?"

It was Tenel Ka who offered the solution. "Although it is mainly the women among the Dathomirans who train in the Force, we have lately begun to recognize the trait in males, and _some_ have been trained. He could come from anywhere on Dathomir - escaping the matriarchal society, perhaps, or a mistress he did not care for. There aren't many transports to the world, true, but I doubt anyone would think to check up on the story - and if he were a male looking to escape, he might have stowed away, and with the Force, not gotten caught."

Jacen snaked an arm out and around Tenal Ka's shoulders. Luke, Mara, Leia and Han exchanged a glance. "That just might work," Luke considered. "In fact, that would work rather well. We can give him the room next to Tahiri's, it's been empty since she regressed, so we don't have to worry about displacing anyone."

"That work for you, Anakin?"

"Yeah, as long as we work out the details. It won't help if we have conflicting stories on what happened to me."

Tahiri, her head still on Anakin's shoulder and running her fingers through his hair, grumbled. "You still need a new name. Something we won't think about saying - something you won't have trouble answering to."

Anakin considered. It was a chance few humans got - the chance to choose their own name, to begin a new life without leaving behind the friends and family of the old one. "I - I'll have to think about it. I wasn't really doing that, before, I was just focused on getting back here, but now that I've done that, I guess I have to plan out who I'm going to be."

"You will _always_ be Anakin Solo to me," Tahiri whispered, and he lightly squeezed the arm she had across his shoulders.


	25. Peace to All

Disclaimer: We've established the fact that if I owned Star Wars, it would not be in the position it is in now.

A/N: Right. I feel the need to explain that it was the Junior Jedi Knights series that got me interested in Star Wars in the first place, and so it will always has a place in my heart, especially the first three. Hence my adoration of Anakin and Tahiri - I grew up with them, grew into science fiction, when I still thought Star Wars was that icky movie with the big, mean slug and not enough rainbows. So this chapter sprang from that, and it's a tribute to me and to the truest things Star Wars has to offer. JJK may not have been the best, but it was the truest to the heart of Star Wars.

Dedicated: To everyone who has loved Star Wars, does love Star Wars, and will love Star Wars. May it get out of this rut!

Second to last chapter! *_sob_*

Chapter XXIV: Peace to All

"You know, you really can't leave this room till you pick a name," Tahiri pointed out.

The assembled - those friends and family Anakin would always subconsciously think of as his 'resurrection committee' - had hashed out every detail of the life of the young, Force-talented Dathomirian boy who'd stowed away aboard a cruiser to get off his homeworld and away from an abusive mistress. How he'd found the Jedi and the _Errant Venture_ was simple enough - he'd gotten picked up by the Solo twins and their friends on their way back. Tenal Ka even promised to show him how to do up his insanely long hair in warrior's braids to keep it off his face, and enforce his Dathomirian image.

What they didn't have yet was a name, and a name he would need, soon, before he emerged into life aboard the space-bound Jedi Academy.

His name had always been a big part of his life - he'd wondered a lot when he was young why his mother had chosen that name, and whether it would put him on the path to the Dark Side, whether he wanted to or not. Tahiri had been one of those who'd helped convince him that his name did not dictate who he was. Just as now, though he knew he would grow into whatever name he chose, he would always answer to Anakin. It was a link to who he was, his legacy - his family and friends who would always, always be there for him, alive or dead, Light or Dark.

"Maybe I won't pick a name, and stay in here forever," he teased.

"Do you want me to start calling you Ani?"

He groaned. Of all the things to remember from being dead - Lusa calling him that embarrassing nickname!

_Waitaminute . . ._

"Massassi Ani."

"Hmm?" Tahiri looked up at him from where she was laying, quite happily, in his lap.

"I think you may have to start calling me Ani, love."

Tahiri sat up. "Your name? Massassi Ani? You're naming yourself after the Massassi?"

"It's more a tribute to – us, to our first real test as a team." Anakin watched Tahiri. "When we freed those Massassi children . . . it's still one of the best things I think I've ever done. And considering some of the stupid, costly things I've done since then, it sort of stands out as a shining moment. And of course, it was us – you and me, no one else. Ikrit helped, but we were the children, strong in the Force and dedicated to the battle of good against evil."

Tahiri smiled. "Peace to all."

Massassi Ani, who was going to have to get used to his new name, picked up Tahiri's hand and kissed it lightly. "Exactly."

*

"Massassi Ani?" Tenel Ka frowned a bit, considering. "You realize you run the risk of people recognizing the name of the race?"

"It's an ancient, dead race, on one moon, and while a few of the Jedi might recognize it, the odds are that it's a random coincidence, so long as the name fits Dathomirian standards. Besides, what's the likelihood that anyone's going to associate the race of the Massassi with Anakin Solo?"

Tenel Ka shrugged, and okayed the name, because while men may not have names on Dathomir, a boy in his position would probably have chosen a name formed in the fashion of his homeworld.


	26. Epilogue

Disclaimer: I _*sob* _don't own _*wail*_ Star Wars!

A/N: It's _overrrr!!!_ NOOOOO!!!!

Well, yes. It's over. **Palace of Dim Night **is over, Anakin has been brought back (with fun new hair), Tahiri is no longer on the brink of suicide, he has a new name and is ready to face the galaxy again. *sigh* This is my last venture into Star Wars till they fix the universe, people! And I hope it's soon, because dangit, I miss this place. There's nothing like it.

Dedication: To everyone who loves Star Wars and what it represents.

Peace to all.

Epilogue

Massassi Ani was introduced to the _Errant Venture_ in a rather simple manner: Tahiri dragged him to the cafeteria and sat down with him to eat. Most of the Jedi didn't question Tahiri's healed state, they were only grateful she was in it, instead of infecting the entire ship with her despair. The rest of the resurrection committee – as well as Tionne, who would know Anakin the moment she felt him – had been informed of his new name and backstory. The rest of the Jedi and the others on the ship could go to Luke or Mara if they wanted to know what was going on with the new trainee.

"Mind if I sit down?" Massassi Ani recognized the young man who'd asked as Raynar Thull, a friend of the twins. He also couldn't help but notice the quiet air of resignation about him, a resignation Massassi Ani recognized all too well. "You the new trainee everyone's talking about?"

"Yes," Massassi Ani nodded, his head bowed. He'd been given some coaching on being a Dathomirian male by Tenel Ka, but he intended to outgrow it at a tremendous rate. "Massassi Ani."

"I'm Raynar."

All of a sudden the long-haired boy's eyes went blank – and while Raynar didn't notice, his eyes trained on his food, Tahiri did, and grinned. He'd run into a couple of people already, and Tahiri had come to relish his messages – although the lecture he'd delivered without thinking about it to Tionne from Nomi had rather astonished all three of them.

Then he got a hold of himself, thought about it for a moment, then shrugged. "Boy, am I never going to be able to explain this." He tapped Raynar on the shoulder and the young man turned to face him. "Raynar, Lusa will never forgive you if you kill yourself. And _never_ is a very long time."

He turned back to his food without another comment, Raynar staring at him, shocked. Tahiri shrugged at Raynar and grinned, her amusement echoing through and shared by the boy sitting next to her, her love and other half - Massassi Ani, known in a past life and to his dearest friends as Anakin Solo.


End file.
